Chocolate Facts - Did you Know About?
Chocolate is our favourite little bit of indulgence whether it is a couple of chocolate coated biscuits with a nice cup of tea or curling up with a good book or film and munching on your bar of choice.
Have you ever realised that when you’re feeling under the weather the perfect pick me up that someone could buy you is..... Yeah you guessed it......a box of chocolates that always makes me feel better! Ever wondered why that is?
But did you know in large quantities chocolate can be lethal to humans; 22lbs that’s about 40 bars of Dairy Milk is a lethal amount for humans. I wouldn’t want to have to eat the World’s largest Chocolate bar myself it weighed in at 3580kg, that’s 7892lb and 8oz and was made in Italy in October 2007.
Read on for lots more fun and fascinating facts about chocolate and astound your friends with your knowledge of the creamy delight that is chocolate.
Facts About Chocolate
Chocolate syrup was used by Alfred Hitchcock in the 45 second shower scene in Psycho.
The Aztec word,’ xocolatl’ means bitter water.
Here in the U.K. we eat 71,579 London buses worth of chocolate every year that’s 500,000 tonnes.
In 1569, Pope Pius V, who did not like chocolate, declared that drinking chocolate on Friday did not break The Fast.
In 1615, Ann of Austria, daughter of Philip II from Spain, introduced the beverage to her new husband, Louis the XIII, and his French court, too when it was part of her dowry.
Marie Antoinette, was the first Queen to bestow the title, ‘by appointment to the Queen’ on her personal chocolate maker in 1770.
During World War II the U.S. government recognized chocolate's role in the Allied Armed Forces. It allocated valuable shipping space for the importation of cocoa beans.
Today, the British Army standard ration pack includes 2 chocolate bars.
Staying with military facts, during the Boer War in 1900, Queen Victoria sent chocolate bars to soldiers as a New Years gift. Chocolate at this time was still a luxury.
Chocolate has even been taken into space as part of the diet of U.S. astronauts. I wonder is it Star Bars???
The shelf life of a bar of chocolate is approximately one year, but you can put it in the freezer and it will keep indefinitely. Would you want to keep your chocolate indefinitely???
It is widely believed that chocolate consumption releases a chemical into your body very similar to what is produced when you are in love. That’s why we turn to chocolate to mend a broken heart.
The best-tasting chocolate bar looks shiny. It should only smell like chocolate too. Grab a corner of the bar and bend it. A piece should snap off cleanly with few crumbs. It should feel creamy and rich, and melt in your mouth too. Yum!
According to the Guinness World Book of Records, The largest chocolate bar weighed 3580 kg (7892 lb 8 oz) and was made by Elah Dufour - Novi in Alessandria, Piemonte, Italy, on 11 October 2007.
The most expensive box of chocolates in the world is sold in Harrods and is made by Lebanese chocolatier, Patchi,, each box of 49 chocolates is personalised for the buyer and wrapped with leather and handmade silk. The chocolates are made from organic cocoa and each is decorated with gold and a Swarowski crystal flower or silk rose. At only £5000 a box, I must put some on my shopping list.
The most expensive bar of chocolate bar in the world cost £961.48 and went on sale in Selfridges on the 4th August, 2009. It is a Wispa covered in edible gold leaf and if you think the price tag a bit strange it is the precise value of the weight of the bar in real gold.
The first heart shaped box of chocolates for Valentine’s Day was the brain child of Richard Cadbury in 1861.
Allergies to chocolate are very uncommon. I certainly don’t have one.
A lethal dosage of chocolate for a human being is about 22lb (or 40 bars of Dairy Milk).
The melting point of cocoa butter is just below human body temperature, that’s why chocolate melts in your mouth, unless you’re eating M & M’s.
The average chocolate bar in the U.S. contains at least 8 pieces of an insect in it. Harvesting of the cacao beans occurs in the tropical countries of South America with low sanitation levels. Cacao tree beans are cut and piled in the farmer's field where they ferment for 6 days. During this process, children and adults walk over the piles; insects, rodents, small animals and other living things that make their nests in the piles. Sorry about this one.
Diet tip: Eat a chocolate bar before each meal, It'll take the edge off your appetite and you'll eat less.
Monkeys were the first to find the cacao plant edible and delectable, not man. The monkeys would eat the pulp and spit out the beans.
Adding a couple of squares of dark chocolate to a Chilli Con Carne improves the flavour by bringing out the Chilli. I do this every time I make Chilli, it works!
Chocolate is widely believed to be an aphrodisiac and was used by the likes of Casanova to seduce women. He used chocolate in Champagne.
Still in France, the Marquis de Sade was imprisoned for the, none lethal poisoning of prostitutes using chocolate to mask the flavour of the poison.
Fry’s were the first people to bring us a bar of chocolate back in 1847.
Fry’s Turkish Delight has been around since 1914.
Fry’s Chocolate Cream dates back even further to 1866.
Thanking Mr. J. J Fry again it was them who invented the first chocolate Easter Egg in 1873.
Cadbury’s chocolate has been in our shops 1st as a drinking chocolate since 1824 and then went into production of chocolate in 1849.
The nation’s favourite Cadbury’s Milk Tray hit our shops in 1905.
In 1875 a man Daniel Peter with the help of a condensed milk maker Henri Nestle invented milk chocolate. Thank you Mr. Peter!
Chocolate gave us the microwave! Weird as it sounds scientists were experimenting with micro waves in the hope of creating a radar detector when a scientist called Percy Spencer walked by with a chocolate bar in his pocket, when he realised it had melted he came up with the idea that micro waves could cook food. He tried it first with some popcorn and it worked, the rest is history.
Chocolate is addictive this we all know but it is also addictive and deadly to dogs, so please be careful and not give our four legged friends chocolate, no matter how much he begs!
Chocolate is not high in caffeine as some people think and you would actually need to eat 10 bars to equate to 1 cup of coffee.
Another myth I am about to burst is that there is no link between acne and chocolate so eating chocolate does not give you spots!
Good news chocolate is actually good for you, well the pure cocoa powder is, as it is full of iron, it’s the additives like the cocoa butter and sugar that make the calories mount.
Americans are responsible for eating half the worlds chocolate products.
Chocolate has been used as a perfume because it has the same, ‘feel good’ smell as fresh baked bread and brewed coffee.
Milton Hershey from Pennsylvania, was responsible for the mass production of chocolate in America, he was nicknamed the “Henry Ford of Chocolate”.
Cocoa butter is great for sunburn.
Chocolate is good for us, FACT, the cacao bean contains theobromine, which enlarges the blood vessels, which in turn is used to treat high blood pressure.
Chocolate consumers are becoming more adventurous, enjoying darker, more unusual flavour combinations with higher cocoa percentages, according to Mintel.
Could you imagine meat flavoured chocolate? Well it does exist Hanna Frederick’s venison chocolate truffles are made from dark chocolate and ground salty dried meat. The opening taste is said to be smokey, followed by a strong chocolate taste, then a salami flavour to finish. It is said to be very popular with men!!
Staying with meat flavoured chocolate last year Chicago-based chocolate maker Vosges cause a stir when its Mo’s Bacon Bar, which combines chocolate with salt and chunks of smoked bacon, made its first trip across the Atlantic to the UK. It sold out within 48 hours of arriving at Selfridge’s four London stores – despite its £5.99 (€7.10) price tag.
Unusual flavour combinations that already exist are: chocolate infused with spices like pepper, chilli and fennel , but even more unusual ingredients are turning up, with Belgium’s Dominique Persoone, for instance, producing chocolates flavoured with cauliflower, basil and tomato – and even chocolate biscuits encrusted with chicken skin. Mmmmm I’m not too sure about that one but I’d still try them!
